As semiconductor integrated circuits become finer, photolithography apparatuses that are pattern transfer apparatuses are required to have higher accuracy, and hence there is the disadvantage that the cost of the apparatus increases. Accordingly, as a technology for executing the formation of fine patterns at low cost, an imprint method has been proposed.
In this imprint method, a stamper (template) having recesses/protrusions in the same pattern, as a pattern to be formed on a substrate subject to transfer is pressed onto a resist (photo-curing organic material layer) on the surface of the substrate subject to transfer. By irradiating light onto the template pressed onto the resist, the resist is cured, and the template is separated (mold-removed) from the resist, and thereby its pattern is transferred into a resist pattern.
Resist used in the imprint method is dropped onto the substrate subject to transfer by, e.g., an ink jet method. In this case, in forming a fine periodic structure such as memory cells, resist is dropped onto predetermined positions on the substrate subject to transfer taking into account the anisotropy of surface tension due to the periodic structure. The resist is improved in filling speed by being placed on a periodic grating such as a checkered periodic grating.
However, when resist is placed on a periodic grating, the controllability for the pattern coverage rate a ad resist height is discrete, and thus it is difficult to obtain a desired RLT (Residual Layer Thickness). If an RLT greatly deviating from a desired value is used, the problem occurs that the shape accuracy of the transferred pattern becomes low. Accordingly, it is desired to perform resist placement which can form transferred patterns of high shape accuracy by imprint.